The Strode Venturer shares many of the elements of Solomon's Seal , a failing shipping line operating in isolated territories, a feud between members of a family an exotic island setting and a group of people seeking to gain their independance form a government they see as oppressive. The Strode Venturer was written first. however, and the shipping company, Strode Orient is listed on the stock exchange, making it a different type of enterprise to the island schooners we see in Solomon's Seal. However, the parallels go further with the character of the drunken has-been ship's officer, who at a moment of crisis can once again rise to the occasion and take command, changing the direction of the events.Otherwise this novel follows the typical Hammonnd Innes formula: a first person narrator who has become footloose with few ties to his past, a central character with a passion to achieve some unusual goal, an exotic locale, The Maldive Islands, a maritime theme, even prospecting for rare metals (this time magnesium nodules).I was inclined therefore to see this as a little "been there, done that", but the description of the island is some of Innes' best writing and the abandoning of the mining crew on the island gives the novel the tension it needs.
Hammond Innes writes very good adventure stories, many of them involving ships or yachts. This one is partly set in the Maldives and partly in the London financial world, and of course, it involves ships. The settings and people are well described and the accounts of sailing ships through the (then) poorly charted Indian Ocean during volcanic activity are particularly good.I first read this book as a teenager, then read it again as my World Tour book for the Maldives. The second time, the story was as part of an omnibus edition. I enjoyed it and then went on to read the other stories, some for the second time and one which was new to me.Historical note: The Suvadives declared independence on January 3, 1959. They capitulated, rejoining the rest of the Maldives, on September 23, 1963.
